Mecca Woods: The Astrologer Behind Eight Years of Bustle Horoscopes
Eight years of Bustle horoscopes, three books, a podcast that warns about spiritual scammers: what is documented about New York astrologer Mecca Woods — and how to read her self-help approach to the zodiac.
In May 2022, two New York astrologers recorded a podcast episode that had little to do with the stars. It was about scammers: fake accounts on Instagram posing as well-known tarot readers and astrologers, sliding into strangers' DMs with curses and payment links. One of the two hosts was Mecca Woods, who by then had spent seven years writing daily horoscopes for Bustle. Her work is a good lens on how American astrology actually runs in the 2020s — as a writing job, a self-help genre, a community and, for some people, a target. Here is what is documented about her, what she says about herself, and how to read her approach.
Contents
Mecca Woods is a New York City astrologer and author. She has written horoscopes for Bustle since 2015 and wrote Andscape's monthly horoscopes in 2024. Adams Media published her Astrology for Happiness and Success (2018), the Your Cosmic Coloring Book series (2019) and The Astrology Journal (2021), which also appeared in German. She co-hosts the podcast Stars on Fire with Janelle Belgrave and is the resident astrologer of Therapy for Black Girls. She treats astrology as a tool for self-reflection; that astrology predicts personality or events is not scientifically proven.
Mecca Woods has written horoscopes and astrology features for Bustle since 2015.
Source/tradition: Bustle and Elite Daily author profile; Simon & Schuster author page
Adams Media published Astrology for Happiness and Success (Dec. 2018), Your Cosmic Coloring Book (Nov. 2019) and The Astrology Journal (Aug. 2021).
Source/tradition: Simon & Schuster title data; retailer data (ISBN 9781507207826, 9781507211984, 9781507216545)
A German edition of the journal appeared in 2022 from mvg in Munich.
Source/tradition: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, catalog query Oct. 19, 2026 (ISBN 978-3-7474-0393-8)
In 2024 she wrote Andscape's monthly horoscopes.
Source/tradition: Andscape contributor page
Therapy for Black Girls introduces her as its resident astrologer.
Source/tradition: Therapy for Black Girls, Session 339 (Dec. 27, 2023)
She co-hosts Stars on Fire with Janelle Belgrave; a May 2022 episode covers spiritual scammers on social media.
Source/tradition: Stars On Fire podcast feed (Spreaker/Apple Podcasts), episode of May 15, 2022
She opened her practice in 2012 and trained in Rebecca Gordon's mentorship program.
Source/tradition: Self-description at mylifecreated.com; Essence interview 2018 — not independently confirmed
She hosted a TLC horoscope series called Stargazing.
Source/tradition: Self-description; repeated by AstroStyle (2020)
Astrology is used as a tool for self-reflection through prompts, affirmations and journals.
Source/tradition: Woods in Essence (2018); structure of her books
Your Sun sign determines your happiness and success.
Source/tradition: No evidence of effect
Astrologers can read personality from a birth chart better than chance.
Source/tradition: Carlson, Nature 318 (1985): 419–425
VERIFIED = verifiable in scientific or official sources · TRADITIONAL = historically or culturally recorded · LIVED PRACTICE = widely practiced, experiential knowledge · NOT PROVEN = spiritual interpretation, not scientifically established.
What this article covers
- The short answer
- From social services to astro-coaching
- Eight years of daily horoscopes
- Three books, one sign at a time
- "A tool for self-empowerment" — and where that stops
- Stars on Fire and the scammer problem
- Making room: Black astrologers and the wellness crossover
- What's documented and what isn't
- Frequently asked questions
The short answer
Mecca Woods is a New York City astrologer and author. She has written astrology for Bustle since 2015 — daily, weekly and monthly horoscopes plus pieces on love, compatibility and self-care — and in 2024 wrote the monthly horoscopes for Andscape. Adams Media, a Simon & Schuster imprint, published her Astrology for Happiness and Success (2018), the twelve-volume Your Cosmic Coloring Book series (2019) and The Astrology Journal (2021). She co-hosts the podcast Stars on Fire with astrologer Janelle Belgrave.
Her pitch is practical rather than predictive: astrology as a way to make choices more deliberately, not a forecast of fate. Her career, books and columns are well documented. What isn't documented — for her or anyone else — is that planetary positions actually shape personality or events.
From social services to astro-coaching
On her website, My Life Created, Woods says she opened her astro-coaching practice in 2012, drawing on a background in social services. She names her training herself: the mentorship program of astrologer Rebecca Gordon. A 2018 interview with Essence repeats that Gordon launched her career — but again on Woods' own account, so we treat it as self-reported.
The same interview tells the origin story. Some eight or nine years earlier she felt stuck in work and love, read an astrology book about relationships, booked a reading with its author and was, in her words, "hooked from that moment on." She taught herself the basics from two classic primers, Astrology for Yourself and Astrology for the Light Side of the Brain.
It's a very American path into the field: a personal crisis rather than a degree, and apprenticeship to a private mentor rather than a school. That says nothing about the quality of her work. It does explain why her writing leans so hard toward everyday decisions and so little toward theory.
Eight years of daily horoscopes
The best-documented part of her career is the column. Bustle's author page lists her as its astrology writer from 2015; the daily horoscopes there run into early 2023. She also wrote for Elite Daily, Bustle's sister site, including a 2024 sex-and-love horoscope. In 2024 she took over the monthly horoscope at Andscape, the outlet on Black culture, sports and society founded by ESPN.
Do the math and the scale becomes clear. Twelve signs, five days a week: more than 3,000 short texts a year for the daily column alone. Nobody writes that from intuition. Horoscope writers work from the ephemeris, the table of planetary positions, and translate each day's sky into a line for each sign. Annabel Gat, who ran VICE's horoscopes for a decade, has described the same craft.
Woods also turns up as an expert guest. The podcast Therapy for Black Girls, hosted by psychologist Joy Harden Bradford, introduces her as its "resident astrologer"; in Session 339 (December 27, 2023) she looked back at the astrology of 2023. She also says she hosted a horoscope series for TLC called Stargazing. That claim appears in her bio and in a 2020 AstroStyle interview that reuses the bio, but we found no independent confirmation.
Three books, one sign at a time
All three projects came out with Adams Media. The publisher data:
| Title | Published | Format and focus |
|---|---|---|
| Astrology for Happiness and Success | December 2018 | 224 pages; self-help by Sun sign, with journal prompts, affirmations, colors and scents |
| Your Cosmic Coloring Book (12 volumes) | November 2019 | 48 pages each; 24 designs per zodiac sign |
| The Astrology Journal | August 2021 | 192 pages; primer on signs, planets and moon phases plus pages for tracking transits and moods |
| Mein Astrologie-Journal | 2022, mvg (Munich) | German edition of the journal, per the German National Library |
The organizing principle is worth noticing. Astrology for Happiness and Success is built entirely around your Sun sign: Capricorns read the Capricorn chapter. That makes it accessible, and it is the crudest cut astrology offers. Woods introduces herself on her own site by Sun, Moon and Rising, and the later journal includes pages for birth chart readings — so the first book is an on-ramp, not the whole craft.
The journal is the more interesting book. It flips the direction: instead of handing you interpretations, it asks you to record what you notice around moon phases and transits. At the end you hold something you can actually check — your own notes.
If you want to keep your own sky notes
Mindful Mornings Journal — Lined Notebook
A sturdy, undated lined journal with thick covers — no prompts, no system to fall behind on. Use it for moon-phase notes, transits or a five-minute morning page. It records what you notice; it doesn't predict anything.
$18.99
See the journal"A tool for self-empowerment" — and where that stops
Woods put her approach plainly to Essence: astrology is "a tool for self-empowerment and self-improvement." She named two uses — picking dates for important plans and knowing when to slow down. Her first book's subtitle says the rest: create the life you want.
That's a different promise from forecast astrology of the kind Susan Miller built Astrology Zone on. Woods doesn't tell you what will happen. She gives you a frame for thinking about your life, with prompts, affirmations and small rituals of color and scent. It is self-help written in the language of the zodiac.
Our take: This stance is more honest than prediction because it claims less. It also has a blind spot. If astrology is a tool for reflection, it can never be wrong. Whether the insight comes from Saturn or from sitting down with a pen once a week can't be separated that way. For everyday life that may not matter. For the question of whether astrology "works," it's the whole question.
Stars on Fire and the scammer problem
Stars on Fire describes itself as "two Sagittarius dames, Janelle and Mecca," talking news, celebrities, TV and film through an astrological lens. The current feed opens in February 2017 with what the hosts call an impromptu reboot; it holds 59 episodes, the most recent from September 2024.
The episode that stands out is "Scammers be Scammin'" from May 15, 2022. Woods and Belgrave discuss spiritual scammers who impersonate legitimate readers on Instagram and other platforms, how to spot them and how not to fall for them. Here it is via Apple Podcasts' official player:
A short checklist, based on the episode and on standard consumer advice:
- Who messaged first? Legitimate readers don't cold-DM strangers with "urgent" readings.
- Is it the real account? Compare the handle with the link on the reader's own website; copies often add a letter or an underscore.
- Is there fear? Curses, "dark energy," "only today" — pressure is the clearest red flag.
- How do they want to be paid? Gift cards, crypto or money "for a cleansing" are your cue to stop.
The same instincts help offline. If you're going to a reader in person, our guide to your first psychic fair covers what a fair session looks like.
Making room: Black astrologers and the wellness crossover
Woods presents herself as part of a community. In the Essence interview she went out of her way to recommend other Black astrologers: her co-host Janelle Belgrave, Dayna Lynn Nuckolls, Ashleigh D. Johnson, Samuel F. Reynolds and Jason Fleming. Our take: in a magazine written for Black women, that list reads as a deliberate act of visibility — room for colleagues rather than self-promotion.
Her Andscape column and her recurring role on Therapy for Black Girls extend that line. The pairing is telling: a mental health podcast regularly brings in an astrologer. It shows how far astrology has moved into American wellness as a language for self-reflection — alongside therapy, not instead of it. For more of the generation she belongs to, see our profiles of Aliza Kelly and Chani Nicholas.
What's documented and what isn't
Documented: her columns at Bustle, Elite Daily and Andscape; her books and their publication data, including the German edition; the podcast; and her appearances on Therapy for Black Girls. Self-reported: the 2012 start of her practice, her training with Rebecca Gordon and the TLC series.
Not documented is the premise of all astrology — that the planets at birth shape character or life events. The best-known test is physicist Shawn Carlson's double-blind study, published in Nature in 1985: astrologers were asked to match personality profiles to the right charts and did no better than chance. That doesn't mean people get nothing out of working with astrology. It means the stars aren't the documented reason.
Voices on Mecca Woods
- Mecca Woods to Essence (2018) on astrology: "a tool for self-empowerment and self-improvement."
- Mecca Woods, same interview, on her first reading: "I was hooked from that moment on."
- Therapy for Black Girls (Session 339, 2023) introduces her as the podcast's "resident astrologer."
What we don't claim
We don't claim astrology predicts personality, relationships or events, and we don't rate Mecca Woods' private readings. We report what is documented about her public work and separate it from what she says about herself. This article promises no results and is no substitute for professional mental health or medical care.
Frequently asked questions
Who is Mecca Woods?
A New York City astrologer and author. She has written horoscopes for Bustle since 2015 and for Andscape in 2024, published three book projects with Adams Media, and co-hosts the podcast Stars on Fire with Janelle Belgrave.
What books has Mecca Woods written?
Astrology for Happiness and Success (2018), the twelve-volume Your Cosmic Coloring Book series (2019) and The Astrology Journal (2021), all from Adams Media. The journal also appeared in German in 2022.
Does Mecca Woods still write horoscopes for Bustle?
Her Bustle author page lists daily horoscopes into early 2023. In 2024 she wrote the monthly horoscopes for Andscape. Check her own site for current work.
Where did Mecca Woods study astrology?
By her own account, in Rebecca Gordon's astrology mentorship program, after teaching herself with beginner books. We found no independent confirmation.
What is the Stars on Fire podcast?
A podcast in which Mecca Woods and Janelle Belgrave discuss news, celebrities, TV and film through astrology. A 2022 episode explains how to spot scammers posing as readers on social media.
Is astrology scientifically proven?
No. Controlled tests such as Shawn Carlson's double-blind study in Nature (1985) found no accuracy above chance. Many people still use astrology as a language for self-reflection.
Sources: Simon & Schuster, Mecca Woods author page and title data for Astrology for Happiness and Success (Adams Media, Dec. 1, 2018) · title data for The Astrology Journal (Adams Media, Aug. 10, 2021) and Your Cosmic Coloring Book (Nov. 5, 2019) · Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, Mein Astrologie-Journal (mvg, 2022) · Essence, interview on Astrology for Happiness and Success (2018) · Bustle and Elite Daily, author profile · Andscape, contributor page (monthly horoscopes, 2024) · Therapy for Black Girls, Session 339 (Dec. 27, 2023) · Stars On Fire podcast feed (Spreaker/Apple Podcasts) · Upstart Crow Literary, author page · mylifecreated.com/aboutmecca (self-description) · AstroStyle, "Starstruck: 2020 Astrology Summit" (June 5, 2020) · Shawn Carlson, "A double-blind test of astrology," Nature 318 (1985): 419–425.
Keep reading: Annabel Gat · Aliza Kelly · Susan Miller · Your Sun sign
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